Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

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Key definition

Employment tribunal definition

What does Employment tribunal mean? A specialist forum that decides employment disputes between workers and employers, typically statutory claims such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, equal pay, unlawful deduction from wages, breach of contract (on termination), redundancy pay, whistleblowing and working time. In England & Wales and Scotland, Employment Tribunals are statutory bodies established under the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. Procedure is governed by the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) 2013; claims are presented on form ET1 and responses on ET3; most claims must be presented within three months (subject to Acas early conciliation stop-the-clock). Cases are heard by an Employment Judge, sometimes with...

Employment Tribunal preliminary hearings: scope, case management, preliminary issues, striking out and procedure under the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024 (England, Wales and Scotland)

Published by a LexisNexis Employment expert

Practice notes

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The Employment tribunal Procedure Rules 2024 (ET Rules 2024), SI 2024/1155, categorise every hearing as either:

a preliminary hearing (the subject of this practice note)
a final hearing (see Practice Notes: Preparation for employment tribunal final hearing and Procedure at employment tribunal final hearing)

What each type of hearing can address differs, and so do the ET Rules 2024 that set out how each proceeds. Those matters are covered in this Practice Note and, for final hearings, in the two Practice Notes cited above. Certain provisions apply to both preliminary and final hearings, and further procedural points arise in each. Refer to Practice Note: Conduct of employment tribunal hearings—general for these aspects of tribunal procedure.

A case may involve more than one preliminary hearing. At a preliminary hearing, the tribunal can direct that it is to be treated as the final hearing, provided that:

the tribunal is correctly constituted for that purpose (see Procedure at employment tribunal final hearing—Composition of employment tribunal for details), and
it is satisfied that neither party would suffer material prejudice as a result

Scope of preliminary hearings

The tribunal may undertake one or more...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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